Ruatapu

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There is also a town called Ruatapu, New Zealand.

In Māori tradition, Ruatapu was a son of the great chief Uenuku, who belittled him for using the sacred comb of his elder brother, Kahutia-te-rangi. As revenge, Ruatapu enticed the children of the nobility into his canoe, sailed them in the ocean, and then sank it (Craig 1989:237). Kahutia-te-rangi survived with the help of a whale and was thereafter known as Paikea (Reedy 1993:142-146).

Meanwhile, Ruatapu convinced the gods of the tides to destroy the land and its inhabitants. Paikea and fled to high ground and was saved through the intervention of the goddess Moa-kura-manu. One version of the myth holds that Ruatapu drowned in the flood and that his bowels became the first jellyfish (Craig 1989:237, Reedy 1989:142-146).


[edit] References

  • R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989).
  • Reedy, Anaru, Ngā Kōrero a Mohi Ruatapu, tohunga rongonui o Ngāti Porou: The Writings of Mohi Ruatapu (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch, 1993).
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